ROUGH STONE MONUMENTS 



barrow of West Tump in Gloucestershire, and in 

 the horned cairns of the north of Scotland. These 

 parallels are due to something more than co- 

 incidence ; in fact, it is clear that megalithic 

 building is a widespread and homogeneous system, 

 which, despite local differences, always preserves 

 certain common features pointing to a single 

 origin. It is thus difficult to accept the suggestion 

 that it is merely a phase through which many races 

 have passed. The phases which occur in many 

 races alike are always those which are natural 

 and necessary in the development of a people, 

 such as the phase of using copper. But there is 

 nothing either natural or necessary in the use of 

 huge unwieldy blocks of stone where much smaller 

 ones would have sufficed. 



There are further objections to this theory in 

 the distribution of the megalithic buildings both 

 in space and time. In space they occupy a very 

 remarkable position along a vast sea-board which 

 includes the Mediterranean coast of Africa and 

 the Atlantic coast of Europe. In other words, 

 they lie entirely along a natural sea route. It is 

 more than accident that the many places in 

 which, according to this theory, the megalithic 

 phase independently arose all lie in most natural 

 sea connection with each other, while not one is 

 in the interior of Europe. 



In time the vast majority of the megalithic 

 monuments of Europe seem to begin near the 



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